US president says media and Democrats forced him to scrap plan to award himself the opportunity to host summit
Donald Trump has been forced into a humiliating climbdown over plans to host the G7 meeting at his own luxury resort following a political outcry.
The US president announced in a Saturday night tweet that he had reversed his decision and would seek an alternative venue to host world leaders next June.
Continue reading...The presidential hopeful and Mark Zuckerberg are facing off over big tech and its influence over our lives
More than two hours into the Democratic debate in Ohio on Tuesday night, after discussions on healthcare, gun control and foreign policy, the moderators turned to another issue that sharply divided the candidates: is it time to break up Facebook?
The question was framed slightly differently: is Elizabeth Warren right?
Continue reading...Bernie Sanders addressed a rally in New York City on Saturday, his first since he paused his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination due to health concerns.
Related: Will Ocasio-Cortez's Sanders endorsement shake up the 2020 race?
Continue reading...Surveillance footage shows emotional moment when Keanon Lowe encountered student in Oregon city
A Portland, Oregon, school district has criticized the release of video footage that shows a high school football coach disarming a suicidal student, then hugging and comforting the teen.
The surveillance video, first obtained by the CBS affiliate KOIN 6 News, shows the Parkrose high school football coach Keanon Lowe encountering Angel Granados-Diaz, then 18. While Lowe’s actions in the May incident had been extensively reported, the video provided visual documentation of his quick thinking and compassion.
Continue reading...Mexico’s foreign minister said on Saturday that the president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and Donald Trump had agreed to take swift action to stem the flow of illegal weapons from the US into Mexico.
Related: 'We do not want war': Mexico president defends release of El Chapo’s son
Continue reading...The top police officer in Chicago told the mayor he had “a couple of drinks with dinner” before he fell asleep at a stop sign while driving home on Thursday, an incident the chief contends was related to a change in his blood pressure medication.
Superintendent Eddie Johnson did not mention having anything to drink when he spoke to reporters on Thursday night and a department spokesman said then officers who responded to a 911 call reporting a man asleep in a car at a stop sign did not observe any signs of impairment.
Continue reading...One might think the best color to describe Alabama would be red-brown, like its dirt, or loamy black like its best soil. Or white like its fences. Or any of the three, like its people. But blue is right. Blue skies, blue denim, blue faded scraps for quilts, the robin’s egg blue paint in portraits and on walls, muted and resilient. Blue is the hue of a fire so hot that its color has to turn cool.
Photographer Andrew Moore captures his view of the deep south state and its complicated legacy
I doubt there’s any woman who hasn’t had her strength rebranded as ‘aggression’ – calling us ‘crazy’ is a tired old trick
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Continue reading...Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn talk about their whirlwind White House trip, with Anne Sacoolas, the woman who killed their son, in the next room
When the grieving parents of British teenager Harry Dunn arrived in New York earlier this week, their fight for justice for their dead son quickly became a whirlwind of interviews. Their press tour took a strange turn on Tuesday, however, when family adviser Radd Seiger received an unexpected invitation to Washington DC.
“Radd, who’s been looking after us, has a phone call from the White House saying: ‘Could you please come to the White House as soon as possible?’” Tim Dunn, Harry’s father, said.
Continue reading...Former secretary of state indicated in a podcast that the Hawaii congresswoman ‘is a favorite of the Russians’
Hillary Clinton has said Russia, which interfered in the US election she lost in 2016, is “grooming” a Democratic candidate for a third-party run next year, signalling she believes congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard could fill the role.
The goal of this would essentially be to divide the US electorate and help Donald Trump win re-election, Clinton said. In the interview, Clinton also said she believes Russia had compromising information, or kompromat, on Trump.
Continue reading...Trump once based his cabinet around retired generals but his Syria policy lurch has brought unprecedented military scorn on his head
Four-star US generals and admirals are a taciturn bunch: they measure their words, qualify their statements and guard their silence out of loyalty to the armed forces and to their country.
Related: Mattis resignation triggered by phone call between Trump and Erdoğan
Continue reading...Billy Foister died last month after a heart attack at work. The incident was just one in a series of recent accidents and fatalities
In September, Billy Foister, a 48-year-old Amazon warehouse worker, died after a heart attack at work. According to his brother, an Amazon human resources representative informed him at the hospital that Billy had lain on the floor for 20 minutes before receiving treatment from Amazon’s internal safety responders.
“How can you not see a 6ft 3in man laying on the ground and not help him within 20 minutes? A couple of days before, he put the wrong product in the wrong bin and within two minutes management saw it on camera and came down to talk to him about it,” Edward Foister said.
Continue reading...Turkish president said he would respond to Trump’s letter telling him not to be a ‘tough guy’ or fool ‘when the time comes’
Jane Fonda is holding another protest in Washington as part of her “Fire Drill Fridays” campaign, which is meant to bring more attention to the climate crisis. Watch the Guardian’s live feed below.
Today is a quieter day in the impeachment inquiry, with no closed-door interviews scheduled on Capitol Hill.
The schedule will pick up again starting Tuesday, with acting US ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor speaking to the House committees leading the investigation.
Next week’s impeachment depositions, per official working on inquiry:
Tuesday: Amb William Taylor
Wednesday: Amb Philip Reeker + OMB Associate Director for Nat’l Security Michael Duffey
Thursday: Deputy Assistant Sec of Defense Laura Cooper + Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman
The ex-defence secretary is laughing off an insult hurled at him by the US president. Speaking at a New York charity event a day after Trump demeaned him as ‘the world’s most overrated general’, Mattis joked that he took it as a compliment. ‘I’m honoured to be considered that by Donald Trump because he also called Meryl Streep an overrated actress,’ he said. ‘So I guess I’m the Meryl Streep of generals’
Continue reading...Christina Koch and Jessica Meir leave International Space Station to replace faulty device
Two Nasa astronauts have embarked on the first all-female space walk in a historic first.
Christina Koch and Jessica Meir floated feet-first out of the International Space Station’s Quest airlock on Friday lunchtime UK time, tasked with replacing a failed power control unit.
Continue reading...Kurdish Red Crescent says six people, some civilians, in hospital with mysterious burns
UN chemical weapons inspectors have announced they are gathering information following accusations that burning white phosphorus was used by Turkish forces against children in Syria earlier this week.
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said on Friday morning that “it was aware of the situation and is collecting information with regard to possible use of chemical weapons”.
Continue reading...Donald Trump said the US had to let Kurdish allies and Turkey 'fight a little while' before agreeing to a five-day ceasefire with Ankara. In a rally held in Texas, he said: 'Sometimes you have to let them fight like two kids in a lot, you gotta let them fight, and then you pull them apart.'
Turkey launched its cross-border offensive in northern Syria on 9 October following Trump's decision to withdraw US troops from the region
Trump hails ceasefire and ‘safe zone’ on Turkey-Syria border as ‘great day for civilisation’ but few believe it
The deal agreed between the US and Turkey immediately achieved the priority objective of vice-president Mike Pence’s peace mission to Ankara: Donald Trump was able to claim victory on Twitter.
The president had unwittingly alienated most of his own party over his acceptance of the Turkish invasion of north-eastern Syria, and was already in the midst of an impeachment battle.
Continue reading...Trump confirmed Perry is resigning, and said that his replacement will be announced ‘very shortly’
The mayor of Doral, Florida, a small town outside of Miami, was taken by surprise by the White House’s announcement that the G7 summit would be held at one of Trump’s own resorts there, the Washington Post reports.
The announcement, a clear example of using the power of the presidency to benefit Trump’s private interests, has sparked anger and widespread criticism.
I just talked to the mayor of Doral — who now needs to plan to host 8 world leaders and thousands of diplomats.
He learned this when we did, by watching Mulvaney on TV. He still hasn’t gotten a call from the White House. https://t.co/7A9AekUhoy
In his final hours, Elijah Cummings, the son of sharecroppers who became an influential Democratic congressman from Baltimore, was still working to help immigrants with chronic medical conditions.
That’s what members of his staff told Massachusetts congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, she tweeted today.
As I was paying my respects to our forever Chairman, his staff told me that in his final hours he signed subpoenas to USCIS and ICE, pursuing justice for immigrants in my district & across the country with chronic medical conditions. A man of his word every moment of his life. pic.twitter.com/igzUPl1yPF
Continue reading...The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has agreed with the US vice-president, Mike Pence, to suspend Ankara’s operation on Kurdish-led forces in north-east Syria for the next five days in order to allow Kurdish troops to withdraw, potentially halting the latest bloodshed in Syria’s long war.
Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters would pull back from Turkey’s proposed 20-mile (32km) deep “safe zone” on its border, Pence told reporters in Ankara on Thursday evening after hours of meetings with Turkish officials.
Continue reading...